


How long do you stay?

by jez (jezebel)



Category: Queer as Folk (UK)
Genre: M/M, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-23
Updated: 2010-10-23
Packaged: 2017-10-12 20:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/128664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jezebel/pseuds/jez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>She really did say that and Russell wrote that story line.  I like to think he had Stuart and Vince in mind :)</p></blockquote>





	How long do you stay?

Vince sat on his sofa, the television on with the volume at full blast as he watched the show that had ruled his entire life. There had been years when he'd had nothing but repeats but now he lived for the times when he got a new chance to watch, and to see new adventures played out in ways that he never thought would be possible.

The best thing was that even after an episode was over he could record it and watch it back, and thanks to the freeview box that Stuart had given him after he had moved on to the next new gadget Vince could also watch all the behind the scenes action straight afterwards. That was what he was doing now, trying to squeeze every last magical moment of the latest and perhaps best episode yet. It was strange, as a boy he would have thought that watching how this was made would somehow detract from the greatness, but Doctor Who: Confidential seemed to only add to the awe as you recognised the nuances that went into each episode, and now here he was watching as they talked about the finale episode, last of the timelords, where he had watched yet another companion leave.

"The thing is," Julie Gardner, Executive Producer and hero in Vince's eyes, said on screen. "If you're in an unrequired love situation, how long do you stay?"

Vince paused, the words playing out over again as he missed what she said next.

How long do you stay?

It was a question that he had asked himself almost constantly in the beginning, after only a year and a half he had been like Martha, thinking that it was possible to walk away and try to build a life away from the person that you loved. He too had wanted to get out, but it wasn't possible. Just as Vince knew in his heart that this was not the last that they would see on screen of Martha Jones. She was just a side kick, not strong enough to last without the man she loved. Vince knew that. It may have been set up as a tear jerker but Vince knew differently, knew that she would be back. He had always gone back.

The problem was that on Doctor Who, on television, it was all fiction. The characters ceased to exist when they were not on screen and Martha would come back a little older, perhaps in some jeopardy and the Doctor would save the day but that didn't happen in real life, in real life there was a pain and a longing and for every moment that you were away, trying to get out there was a thought of what might have been.

In an unrequired love situation, how long do you stay?

You stay for as long as possible because no matter the pain and the hurt of never being noticed it was nothing compared to the pain of being without that person.

Martha's life would never be the same, not after she had met and loved the Doctor, just as Vince's life would never be the same having met and loved Stuart.

Vince knew in his heart that in that situation you stay forever, you just can't do anything else.

***

**Author's Note:**

> She really did say that and Russell wrote that story line. I like to think he had Stuart and Vince in mind :)


End file.
